Prior to the release of Windows 7, Microsoft were getting all sorts of headaches from the EU, the antitrust case was sparked off by Opera in December 2007, saying that Microsoft was shielding Internet Explorer from real competition by bundling it with every version of Windows. So to make things fair, the commissioner wanted the consumers to decide what browser they installed.
Microsoft agreed to this Ballot Screen in July as a way to resolve the case. It would present consumers with a windowshowing, IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari. The user could then choose which browser they wanted installed on their system. Originally the browsers were to be displayed in alphabetical order, but last month, Opera, Mozilla and Google all submitted change requests.
Now it appears that the browser ballot screen will display the browsers in a random order every time. The ballot screen was originally intended to be displayed in Internet Explorer, but now it seems Microsoft will be displaying it as its own application. So now , the top five browsers — IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Apple’s Safari — will appear in random order each time the ballot is displayed.
Brower Ballot Screen
Mozzila were very against Microsofts original ballot screen idea claiming that it gave IE more than three times the space of other browsers. Hakon Wium Lie, Opera’s chief technology officer, is much happier with the new ballot layout since
Alphabetizing would just lead to opportunistic naming.We could call ourselves AAA Browser Maker and get the first spot.”
The new browser ballot screen may finalized as early as Dec. 15 when EU commissioners meet to vote on the issue. And if they are happy with it, Microsoft will have 8 weeks to push out an update to all Windows Xp, Vista and Windows 7 machines – about mid February.
When the ballot screen is approved and pushed out to computers, users who have IE set as their default browser will be offered a choice of browsers. New PCs in the EU will also be sold with this ballot screen and the first time they try to access the internet they will be presented with this ballot.
